Glad to see there's still interest in this amazing sailplane. This was THE glider to lust over when I was a kid in the mid 60s. Not one but two Sisus used to show up at our Wright Memorial Glider Meet in Richmond, IN (hosted by the Soaring Society of Dayton, precursor of the Caesar Creek Soaring Club), flown by national champions Dean Svec and A.J. Smith. I understand that Dick Butler has A.J.'s ship in its original condition, which I would dearly love to see. If memory serves correctly, both the National Soaring Museum and National Air and Space Museum have Sisus and I believe I've seen them both.

As a bit of totally irrelevant trivia, those who have heard me on the radio at contests over the years may recall my use of "Jake Baker" as a call sign with my crew and close flying buds, in lieu of the standard Juliet Bravo. This originated with Dean Svec's use of "Jack Baker", which were the last two characters in his "N" number (believe it or not, from memory: N252JB). My father either misheard Dean at one contest or altered the pronunciation himself and began using it a few years later when he ended up with "JB" as a competition ID. And I've used it ever since.

I just checked and, curiously, Dean's former Sisu (SN 105) was reregistered as N252J (i.e., dropping the "B") in the past and the FAA shows it as being in OK now. I don't recall what competition ID was on it in those days and the contest reports I checked from that era don't include them.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"